How to fix heating issues?

[prudhvirazz]

Hello friends,

I am a gamer. I mostly play World of Warcraft (WOW) and few other games. Lately I am not playing on my PC because of Heating issues (I think). I am not an expert when it comes to computers, which is why I am asking for your help.

Here is the Spec:

2.5 Year old - Dell Studio 1558 x64
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 450 @ 2.40GHz, 2400 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 series (AMD); 2.75 GB
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.86 GB
Available Physical Memory 1.91 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.73 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.18 GB

[Please ask me if you need more details about my PC]

I play on the lowest possible settings. The problem is my PC gets heated very quickly (15-20 mins) and FPS drops drastically from 100 to 15 and even low if played for long hours. WOW is a simple game, doesn't required high end gaming config to play wow well in high settings. They say WOW is dependent more on CPU. I think my PC is good enough to play wow on high setting without any problem.

First of all I would like to know if "Heating issues" is the main problem for poor performance ? If so please guide me on how to fix it. If not please help me find the root cause. any help will be greatly appreciated.

PS: I have spent a lot of Money to buy this so its very disappointing that its not working as it is supposed to. I took my PC to Dell service centre 3 times during warranty period. Each time they said they have fixed everything and there won't be any problem further. But they never solved this problem really. They replaced few parts and fixed heating issues (at least they said so) I am not a expert so I couldn't figure out if they really did or not. I gave up on them.

 

[hillmanant]

Hello prudhvirazz

I have to say I think your system is fine for WOW. This is a laptop correct? I sounds like the GPU is getting too hot causing video degradation. Proceeding with that assumption, do you use it on your lap, with or without pillows or blankets under it? The reason I ask is I've had to clean many of these kinds of laptops and 99% of the time theres a lint ball resembling a felt strip covering the heat sink fins something like this , this happens no matter how you use it, it just happens faster if used on you lap or in bed. I would take apart the laptop and clean it out because odds are it looks like this being 2.5 years old. I know if you've never taken apart a laptop it can he kinda a daunting task, this guy shows how to get into your laptop very well unless your laptop has an access panel for the heat sink in the back, this makes it very easy this guy shows you that configuration. In any event when you get to the heat sink I would take it off the board like this guy clean the contacts and chip with Articlean and put new thermal compound on the contacts.


Just my 2 cents do with it what you will.

 

[prudhvirazz]

HI Hillman,

Thanks for taking out time and writing to me. Yes mine is a laptop. I use it a flat table. I even used some cooling pad for some days. It didn't help much. Even if i stuff 4 small wooden blocks on four corners for free air flow, still its gets heated very fast. I will go through those guides and try to fix it. I am not an expert and haven't opened my laptop even once. So I will try as see if it will help me.

Thank you very much.